State DEC labels Sullivan County airport a Superfund site due to firefighting foam use

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Five things to know about PFAS

Used in numerous products from stain repellents to food packaging, they have become a pollution concern nationwide. Here are five things to know about PFAS.

TOWN OF BETHEL -- The state Department of Environmental Conservation last week declared that the Sullivan County International Airport is a State Superfund Program site, due to drinking water pollution from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances from firefighting foams.

The substances -- better known as PFAS for their manmade chemical class (common in a long list of household products, including frying pans) -- have contaminated drinking water near airports across the U.S. and statewide.

That also has occurred at Stewart Air National Guard Base, where testing has linked firefighting foams, used years ago for fire suppression training, to contamination in the City of Newburgh's former drinking water supply.

The state Superfund Program identifies, investigates and cleans sites where the disposal of hazardous waste may present a threat to public health and/or the environment.

The Sullivan County airport's contamination is on 116 acres on the western side of the 603-acre site, due to a firefighting training area that county personnel used roughly from the airport's 1969 opening until perhaps the late '90s, said Edward McAndrew, the county's public works commissioner, who oversees the airport.

About three years ago, the state Department of Health performed tests that detected PFAS levels that ranged from 4 parts per trillion to 216 parts per trillion in the airport's primary and backup drinking water wells, McAndrew said. (Both have been offline since).

The cost, timing and efforts necessary for the airport's near-future PFAS remediation are unclear until the county receives state guidance, and the cleanup could take years given how long it's been since the state's original PFAS testing and the recent contamination declaration, McAndrew said.

He said an unspecified number of local landowners also have been told about the airport's contamination, so they can test their wells, and that the county has yet to receive complaints from the airport's neighbors.

The airport, located in the Town of Bethel, began using bottled water as a precaution, around 2017. But its drinking water falls below New York's new 10 parts per trillion PFAS rule for a maximum contamination level and a federal recommendation of no more than 70 parts per trillion, McAndrew said.

In other airport news, Sullivan County International Airport Partners LTD, a private, New Windsor-based investment group, recently signed a lease with the county for a 12,000-square-foot hangar building, which the company plans to spend several million dollars to soon build.

State and federal grants, meanwhile, have been covering recent major infrastructure projects at the airport, including $3.3 million toward almost-finished runway improvements, plus $485,000 for new fueling equipment.

The county's decision to take over selling fuel, in recent years, and other revenue-driving initiatives brought in a then-strong (by the airport's standards) $474,461 in revenue toward the facility's $734,874 budget in 2019.

But the airport has not been financially self-sustaining since it opened, and the pandemic will try its finances, its leaders cautioned.

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